The family of 19-year-old Danny Chen has demanded an investigation after the Army private was found dead in Afghanistan of what military authorities say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Chen’s family says, before his death, he reported being subjected to racist hazing, with soldiers throwing rocks at him and calling him ethnic slurs. Now the Army has charged eight soldiers involved in his death with crimes ranging from...

The controversy around Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is growing by the day. In a scathing report, the Justice Department has accused Arpaio of "wide-ranging discrimination against Latinos," leading federal authorities to suspend Arpaio’s access to programs under which undocumented immigrants are handed over from his jail for deportation. "The federal government was using Arpaio as sort of a showcase, a model for its 287(g)...

The veteran broadcaster Tavis Smiley and the author and Princeton University Professor Cornel West are in the midst of a 15-city, cross-country trek they have dubbed "The Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience." The tour comes on the heels of last week’s deficit agreement, which has been widely criticized for excluding a tax hike on the wealthy, as well as any measures to tackle high unemployment. "Any legislation that...

We speak with veteran journalist Tavis Smiley and Princeton University Professor Cornel West about President Barack Obama and the 2012 elections. "He’s rightly associated much more with the oligarchs than with poor people," says West. Adds Smiley, "I don’t think the President would be hurt, necessarily—the country certainly would not be hurt—by a primary challenge that would refocus him on what really matters. It would...

This week federal prosecutors in New Orleans finished presenting their case against police officers involved in the infamous Danziger Bridge shooting in the days after Hurricane Katrina. Four police officers are charged with shooting six unarmed civilians, killing two. A fifth officer is accused of helping them cover up their crimes. On Wednesday, the trial culminated in final arguments, leaving the case in a jury’s hands. A verdict...